1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for storing a large number of electronic documents required for a strict management for access control, and typically to an electronic original document storage apparatus and the related apparatuses for storing a large number of original electronic documents required for assuring the originality thereof in low cost and safety.
2. Description of the Related Art
With a recent development of information processing apparatuses, management of documents have been in transition from the conventional paper basis to the electronic data basis. Meanwhile, with a development of the legal system, a possibility of filing a large number of taxation documents in electronic data is beginning to become an actuality. Copying or tampering with such documents in the form of electronic data is easy on an information processing apparatus, hence making lost sight of the original of those documents a real possibility. As a countermeasure to such a problem, an information processing apparatus for managing the originals of electronic documents, namely an electronic vault capable of a strict management for access control, is commercialized as noted in a patent document below.
And in the apparatus for distinguishing between the original and a copy, that is, in the electronic vault, an originality of document is achieved by comprising the following functions of:
(1) distinguishing between the original and a copy, and making the original unique in which the uniqueness of originality is kept if the original is moved to another electronic vault;
(2) detecting a tampering of the original;
(3) recording a fact of handling the original and detecting a tampering of the original handling record
as well, where the handling means all the handling such as registration, reference, modification
move, duplication (i.e., copy), making a backup, transfer to another media, restore, et cetera. Also storing every document of generations modified; and
(4) controlling access rights to the original.
Since the electronic vault, however, basically records files (e.g., electronic documents) in a RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks) apparatus, a total volume of stored files becomes large, necessitating to equip an additional disk, or transfer some files to an external storage medium, before the RAID apparatus becomes overcapacitated and requiring cumbersome work for selecting data to be transferred piece by piece as the amount of data under management becomes very large.
Furthermore, it has been cumbersome to restore the transferred electronic document back to the electronic vault itself in order to refer to the electronic document.    [Patent document 1] Japanese Published patent application 2002-82821.